


bed bandit

by thunderylee



Category: KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, Fluff, Gen, Melodrama, drunk epiphanies, member love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-02
Updated: 2011-04-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 00:48:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12594288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: It’s not breaking and entering if he should be there.





	bed bandit

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck. written for fic_the_faith 2011.

“And then I told her, ‘What are you waiting for? It’s not going to suck itself!'”

Jin rolls his eyes as he throws back another beer. “This is why you have a bad rep, dude.”

“Whatever.” Ryo grins drunkenly, showing all of his teeth. “That bad rep keeps getting me laid.”

“Here, here!” calls out Pi, although Jin suspects that he’s too wasted to know what he’s toasting to. He’s also swaying dangerously as he lifts his can, and Jin watches in amusement as Pi completely misses his mouth and swallows air.

Pi doesn’t seem to notice, the beer sloshing down his face and onto his shirt as he hums happily to whatever is playing in his head, a song only he knows.

Jin’s kind of jealous. He wishes he had music playing in his head.

“I’m gonna go for a walk,” he slurs, only stumbling a little as he stands up. And wavers. A lot. “I need some fresh air.”

“Dude, we’re _outside_ ,” Ryo points out. Pointedly.

“I put up the tent!” Pi announces, then snorts rather unattractively in laughter. “Heh, I pitched the tent.”

“Yes, you did,” Jin says slowly, like he’s speaking to a child. “I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Don’t get lost!” Ryo yells after him, but Jin knows exactly where he is.

He brought them here for a reason.

~

The cottage is just as he remembered it, although much darker and kind of blurry. If Jin squints, it looks like it’s moving, although that’s probably just his inebriated eyesight playing tricks on him.

If anyone were to have a haunted cottage, though, it would definitely be Ueda.

It’s actually his grandmother’s or something, but Jin’s sure that Ueda doesn’t carry all of the weirdness in his family by himself. He has to get it from someone.

Jin hasn’t been here for years. Since before L.A. (the first time); possibly before their debut. They used to come up here to get away from the cameras, the responsibilities, Johnny – everyone but each other.

Just walking up the front steps takes Jin back five years. Ueda has kept the place up, probably pays someone to maintain the lawn and dust the furniture, but that’s not what Jin sees. His memories of this place have nothing to do with the actual cottage and everything to do with the people who were here with him.

The people who are now here without him. Not _right_ now, of course, or Jin wouldn’t be creeping around the property in the middle of the night like a really bad burglar. He’s heard about Nakamaru’s private arsenal of weaponry and wouldn’t put it past him to bring one or two along (for protection), and Jin already knows that Koki packs a mean punch. From experience.

No, he knows they were just here. He watched them pack up and leave earlier this evening while Pi was putting up the tent and Ryo was grilling. He hadn’t intended for them to cross paths like this, just to camp in the wilderness next to Ueda’s property and maybe check out the place.

Seeing them just made him drink more. He doesn’t miss being in a group with them, not at all. He doesn’t miss the crappy music or Kame’s bitching or sadistic managers who think it’s perfectly okay to promote two singles during a twice-daily concert run. He doesn’t miss the accusations that he doesn’t care anymore or every word that comes out of his mouth blatantly misinterpreted. He doesn’t miss the soft core photoshoots or obvious fanservice or being forced to purposely sing incorrect English lyrics because the Japanese fans think it’s cute.

He misses _them_.

He misses Nakamaru’s unconditional trust in whatever stupid, embarrassing thing Jin would make him do. He misses Ueda’s quiet dedication and subtle leadership, even after giving up the official title. He misses Koki’s fun-loving attitude and fierce loyalty to everyone and everything precious to him. He even misses Taguchi’s puns, but just a little bit.

And as much as they butted heads, as much as they’re both happier now without being in each other’s ways, Jin misses Kame’s face. Jin misses Kame’s face because he doesn’t remember what it was like _not_ to see Kame’s face on a semi-regular basis. Whether he was forced to or not.

Somewhere over the years, Kame’s face became like a comfort to him. No matter what happened, he could count on Kame’s face to emulate whatever expression he felt. Kame’s life wasn’t that easy, either. He and Jin shared similar burdens. It’s the main reason why they got along at all – they understood each other.

Out of everyone, Jin knows that Kame understood the most why he chose to leave the group. Because he would have done the same thing himself given the opportunity, and then Jin would have been the one to understand. He may have been resentful at first – like Kame was – but he would _understand_.

He hasn’t seen Kame’s face in over a year now. Not in person, not more than a passing glance in the hallway. He sees him – them – on TV and in the magazines and it just isn’t the same; he feels sorry for the fans who only know them in this two-dimensional light, unable to appreciate the pure beauty and quirks that can only be seen in the flesh.

He must really be drunk if he’s thinking about Kame’s beauty, Jin muses as he turns the doorknob with a flick of his wrist. He gasps when the door opens – Ueda should really be more careful. Just because they’re out in the middle of nowhere doesn’t mean that someone won’t just stumble into his cottage and knock over the first thing in their path.

“Shit,” Jin hisses, grabbing the end table before it crashes to the floor. There had been something on it, pictures or something, but Jin isn’t about to lean over to look. Then it would be him crashing to the floor.

Since he’s already inside, he may as well look around. The main room doesn’t even look like it was used; Jin suspects Kame attacked it before they left. He cleans better than most professionals, despite complaining a lot more.

The kitchen reminds Jin of sluggish mornings, barely lifting his forehead off of the wood table to eat whatever whoever had made for breakfast. Once or twice it had been Jin himself to serve the meal, but only because he hadn’t gone to sleep yet. Every other time he was hungover or running on empty, depending on how late they’d stayed up, but he still dragged himself to the table because eating was one thing KAT-TUN did well together.

Another thing was coexisting. Jin didn’t know of any other group of six people who could sit comfortably in a room together for _hours_ without talking. It took them a long time to get to that point, where they didn’t unknowingly do anything to disturb the peace, and Jin found that he did his best thinking during those times. Even if the others probably thought he was sleeping.

That’s what made these getaways to Ueda’s cottage so enjoyable. Unlike when they took a trip for Cartoon KAT-TUN or went on tour, out here they didn’t _have_ to interact. There were no cameras filming their every move and no fans to entertain. They didn’t always get along, either – this kitchen is where he and Kame had their most serious arguments over the years, screaming at the top of their lungs at each other while the rest of the group ignored them and let them hash it out.

In a way, this cottage was therapeutic, a place to go where they could be themselves and not worry about the “idol image.” There was a lake nearby, where Taguchi and Nakamaru would sometimes go fishing. There were miles of worn trails and unchartered forest for Kame and Ueda to explore somewhere different each visit. Koki and Jin usually preferred to laze around, relaxing on the back porch and just enjoying nature with some hip-hop bumping in the background.

Jin wonders what they do now that he’s gone, if they do the same things as before and Koki just lazes around by himself now. He doesn’t actively keep tabs on them but he hears things, usually in jest from Ryo and Pi, those bastards. Reports of the five remaining members staying up all night in someone’s hotel room, _talking_ , group dinners and inside jokes, and Jin would be a liar if he said it didn’t bother him.

Right now, with as drunk as he is, he would say he’s damn jealous. Of course, that’s just what they say in the concert MCs and share in interviews – now that he’s an outsider, he doesn’t know any more than the fans. And while he has his own business to worry about and is overall glad he’s not musically limited anymore, a small part of him wishes they had acted like that while he was in the group. Just so he didn’t have to wonder what he was missing out on.

He wonders if the silence between them had only been comfortable to him.

His fingers dust the counters and walls as he strolls through the rest of the bottom floor, purposely touching everything like he’s adding his fingerprints to the five already there. Like they should have been there in the first place.

Jin had obviously been free this weekend. They could have invited him. The camping trip with Ryo and Pi had been, as were most of their plans, last-minute.

He knows there aren’t any hard feelings, not anymore. He hears their well wishes and saw their not-so-subliminal representations during their last concert that Pi made him watch. For a second, Jin had thought he was looking at himself and seriously questioned his memory until he realized that Kame had just gained some weight.

Jin loves being solo. He loves having full control over the type of music and lyrics he performs. He’s even grown to love being the only one on the stage, all eyes on him, his voice being all that carries into the crowd. He doesn’t have to worry about drowning out someone else, always getting stuck with the harmony, or staying in sync with five other people. Now his dancers are instructed to stay in sync with _him_.

Even now, past the point of rational thinking (and breaking and entering), Jin would rather be laughed out of American mainstream and fired from the agency, resorted to moving back in with his mother and working at Lawson’s for the rest of his life than stay in that boyband. At least the part of it that was in front of the cameras and fans.

When he made the decision to leave KAT-TUN, he wasn’t leaving _them_.

The stairs are tricky, but Jin makes it to the second floor. All that’s up there are three bedrooms and two bathrooms, one of them inside the master bedroom that Nakamaru and Ueda always shared. They were like the parents of the group, the two oldest who for the most part let the others run wild but got stern when they had to.

Following this line of thinking, Jin would place Nakamaru as the pushover dad while Ueda was the strict mom, even if Ueda would be more likely to kick his ass for giving him a woman’s role. Jin himself felt like a stepson, possibly on Nakamaru’s side since he’s the one Jin was closest to outside of work. Taguchi and Koki were the older brothers who didn’t include Jin in their games, and Kame was the baby sister whom the others were obligated to protect.

Kame would kick his ass for the comparison, too, but more for the protection part. Kame’s the _last_ person in the group who needs someone to take care of him, but being the youngest automatically placed him in that category. Nakamaru, Koki, and Jin instinctively took to him as such, having younger siblings themselves, and Taguchi and Ueda eventually grew accustomed to that role as well. Those two still had sisters, after all.

Whether Kame liked it or not, he had five more older-brother types to add to the two biological ones he already had. Even now, Jin still gets testy when someone outside the group says something negative about Kame to him. It’s only okay for the other members to make fun of him – no one else.

Jin frowns as he wonders if he gave up that right, too.

The master bedroom actually looks lived in, one of the few rooms Kame must have left untouched. Jin has no shame in letting himself in and falling face-first onto the closest bed, suddenly exhausted from all of the walking and thinking. Even if Jin didn’t already know it was Nakamaru’s from past visits, he would recognize that scent anywhere. Nakamaru is a complete stranger to change and Jin finds comfort in the knowledge that the oldest _still_ uses the same shampoo and cologne he has for years now.

Jin curls up in the sheets, trying to get comfortable. Surely it would be okay to rest for awhile. Ryo and Pi won’t be worried about him – they’re probably passed out by now, Pi utilizing Ryo as a teddy bear while Ryo grumbles and kicks in his sleep. Even Big Nose’s bed has to be better than being stuck in the middle of that.

Except that it’s not. Jin tosses and turns, unable to find a position where some part of his body doesn’t nag at him. After awhile he finds a culprit in the pillow, which is too flat and may as well not exist at all. Jin has no idea how Nakamaru sleeps like this, although he knows first-hand that Nakamaru can sleep anywhere as long as there’s no imminent danger.

Jin can’t count on both hands how many times Nakamaru has fallen asleep on _him_ , neck crick and everything, and while he was annoyed at the time, now it just makes Jin feel warm because it means Nakamaru didn’t see him as a threat. Any of them, actually, even though he would be the first one to pass out when they were all together and subsequently become the canvas on which the other five drew incriminating things. In the morning, Nakamaru would just roll his eyes and wash his face, scrubbing extra hard on his nose that was always Jin’s spot.

Nakamaru hasn’t fallen asleep on him lately, though, or even come around. He was the only one who still contacted Jin after his official departure, but that didn’t last very long. Jin hasn’t seen him for a few months now, since his solo concert in Japan earlier this year. They’re all busy, he knows, but he had always counted on Nakamaru to check up on him, see how things were going, cheer him on a little more.

Jin liked to think that he was reporting back to the others, too. It kept him from the harsh realization that they didn’t care anymore.

Lying flat on his back like this is clearly depressing. Grumbling, Jin rolls out of Nakamaru’s bed and into Ueda’s, which has a nice, fluffy pillow and a bonus extra blanket. Ueda usually got cold at night, despite being the same build as Nakamaru the human heater. Even in the summer, Ueda would manage to shiver under several layers of clothes. They used to joke that he was cold-blooded, and eventually Ueda stopped pulling away from their impromptu embraces, accepting the unspoken offers of shared body heat.

Ueda was the one Jin strove to please. He wasn’t the leader anymore, hadn’t been since before they debuted, but he still had a high standard of performance that surpassed even Kame’s. His standards carried over into their personal interactions, his obligation to the group continuing even after he wasn’t completely responsible for them. He was the first one to get in the middle of Jin and Kame’s arguments, the only one who would approach Koki when he was angry, and he had this sixth sense that told him when a member was upset or needed someone to talk to, even if his comfort was more reluctant and lecturing. Tough love.

Jin wonders if Ueda can sense him now, rolling around in his bed, or if he cut off that link as well.

Something sparkles on Ueda’s pillow and instantly Jin sneezes. He startles himself and jumps, inhaling more of the sparkles and continuing to sneeze until he falls out of the bed. The lack of oxygen gives him visions of fairy dust and booby traps, but those thoughts fade away when he can breathe properly again.

He leans on the edge of their shared dresser and narrows his eyes at both beds, like they have done a disservice by refusing him. Now he has a headache from sneezing and just wants to lay down.

Taguchi and Koki’s room is right across the hall, but Jin slams into the door harder than he should. It’s locked. The front door isn’t even locked, but one of the _bedrooms_ is. A million possible reasons run through Jin’s throbbing head, secret happenings that he probably doesn’t want to know about, but this just backs up the whole family analogy where they push Jin away.

It’s probably a good thing, because thinking about either of them right now may not be very peaceful. They’ve both been outspoken with their support of Jin’s solo career, which Jin supposes is the most important thing, but he can’t seem to shake the early years when he didn’t get along with either one of them. No matter how friendly they ended up, it’s hard to forget being on the receiving end of a fist of pure hatred. From _both_ of them.

Which leaves his old room that he used to share with Kame. As he pushes open the door, he’s not sure why he didn’t come here to begin with, because _his_ bed would obviously be there and unused. But while it is certainly still _there_ , it’s also stripped and Jin’s not about to try and put sheets on a bed in his state. Looking at the sixth mattress completely bare and ignored makes his heart hurt, even though it’s completely logical to not set up a bed that no one is going to sleep in.

Naturally Kame’s bed is impeccably made, with hospital corners and everything. There’s a sense of accomplishment in messing it up, twisting the sheets out of place to the point where Jin gets tangled himself. Kame’s pillow is perfectly fluffed and the sheets smell of bath soap with a faint hint of aftershave, reminding Jin of fun, carefree days at the public bath or the two of them going to the beach with Pi.

And he couldn’t be more comfortable.

~

“I can’t believe you forgot your cell phone,” Kame bitches for the fortieth time since they turned around, eyes wide open from several cups of coffee.

“I’m sorry,” Ueda says carelessly, probably for the fortieth time as he sits in the passenger seat of Kame’s Jeep and stares out the window at the dark scenery whipping by. “I really don’t want to buy another one.”

In the backseat, Nakamaru’s sleeping awkwardly between Koki and Taguchi, who are both texting on their phones. Every so often, they glance up at each other conspiratorially. Kame hopes they’re not plotting something too embarrassing.

“We’re almost there,” he grits through his teeth as he turns on the four-wheel drive and climbs up the off-road shortcut to the cottage. “And we’re going to sleep the second we get there because we have to leave _very early_ if we want to make it to work on time.”

“Yes, Mother,” Koki replies sarcastically, but it’s followed by a yawn.

Ueda’s expression is unchanging, his eyes on his property as it comes into view.

The first thing they see is the front door wide open. Kame throws the Jeep into park and quickly kills both the engine and the lights, leaving them in a dark silence. Slowly Ueda’s face comes back into focus, but it looks the same as it has since he told Kame he didn’t have his phone.

“Tatsu,” Kame says slowly. “What should we do?”

Nakamaru had sat up the second they crossed onto Ueda’s property, not from the bumpy ride but from the tension in the air. “Koki, Junno, you go around back,” he hisses. “Take Kazuya’s baseball bat. I’ll go in the front.”

Kame whips his head around and glares. “I’m not going to sit here and wait like a fucking girl.”

A click sounds as Nakamaru retrieves his revolver from his bag, studies Kame’s face, and nods. “You’re right. He could be waiting out here to attack. We’ll all go in together.”

“You’ve been watching too many war movies,” Ueda comments as he swings his legs over the edge of the seat and jumps down. “Just watch where you point that thing.”

The rest of them pour out of the Jeep and Taguchi reaches into the back for Kame’s bat. He looks positively maniacal as he carries it over his shoulder, joining Nakamaru with his gun and Koki with his switchblade out and ready.

Suddenly Kame feels very, very safe. As long as he stays _behind_ them.

Nakamaru leads the way with a flashlight balanced over his gun and Taguchi and Koki at his sides, Kame carefully following with Ueda strolling next to him. They check out the entire bottom floor and it appears to be untouched, save for the end table that the perpetrator clearly tripped over on his way inside.

It’s Kame who kneels down to retrieve the fallen objects, being careful to avoid the glass shards as he rescues the picture and breathes a sigh of relief when he learns it’s still intact. It’s his favorite picture of them – _all_ of them, way before the shitstorm that was last year. He’d sneakily timed his camera to capture them undetected, lounging around this very living room in their natural, uninhibited state.

Nakamaru was sleeping on Koki, who was scribbling something in a notebook while Jin stuffed his face and Taguchi played a game on his handheld device. Ueda and Kame were having a heated conversation about something, huddled under a blanket because Ueda was cold. Kame smiles as he holds up the picture, remembering this time that was so happy and relaxing and _KAT-TUN_.

“Kazu, you coming?” Nakamaru barks from the stairwell, interrupting Kame’s rare memory indulgence.

“Yeah,” Kame says, sliding the picture into his pocket as he stands up. He makes a mental note to come back and clean up the broken glass after they declare the cottage creeper-free or he won’t be able to sleep.

They take the stairs as a cluster and disperse, each heading to their respective door.

“Still locked,” Koki announces, and Taguchi looks relieved. “Let’s go back downstairs and secure the perimeter.”

“Good idea,” says Nakamaru. “Stick with us, Kazu.”

Kame eyes his own door as he follows Nakamaru and Ueda into the master bedroom.

“Someone’s been here,” Nakamaru assesses, taking in the state of his bed.

“It looked like that when we left,” Ueda points out as he walks over to his, leaning down to take a pinch of something from his pillow. “Mine, however, has definitely been disturbed.”

“You think someone broke in to roll around in our beds?” Nakamaru asks him seriously. “What kind of pervert does that?”

Kame swallows. He has a strong suspicion who it might be, based on something he remembers Pi telling him earlier this week. “I’m going to check my room. By myself.”

“No,” Nakamaru says, shaking his head firmly. “We’re going with you.”

Kame starts to protest, but it’s Ueda who places his hand on Nakamaru’s arm and intervenes.

“Let him go, Yuu. He can take care of himself.”

Nakamaru doesn’t look convinced, but he just nods. “You should have taken the bat,” he mumbles, but he only twitches a little as Kame backs out of the room.

Once out of their sight, he narrows his eyes and pushes his way through his own door. As expected, there’s a lump in his bed. A Jin-sized lump.

“Oh, you,” Kame says exasperatedly, sighing as he approaches the sleeping former member and perches on the edge of the mattress. “You made Nakamaru get all war-crazy.”

Jin tugs at the blanket Kame’s sitting on, makes a frustrated face, and just curls towards him instead. Kame’s hand raises naturally to his hair, running his fingers through the thick, damp strands and frowns in concern. Exactly how far had Jin walked to get here?

Footsteps in the hallway have Kame jumping up, racing to the door, and slipping out before Nakamaru or Ueda could see in.

“It’s fine,” he tells them.

“What’s fine?” Nakamaru demands.

“Shh,” Kame hisses. “Just trust me, okay?”

Slowly Ueda pulls Nakamaru back by his sleeve. “Who’s in there, Kazu?” he whispers.

Kame sighs again. “Someone who’s supposed to be.”

He gets two confused expressions in response, at least until he pushes open the door enough for them to see.

Instantly, the two oldest faces of the group soften. Nakamaru shoves his gun back into his pants and flips open his phone to call off the others.

Then the unmistakable sound of a window being bashed with a baseball bat comes from downstairs. Ueda fumes and flies down the stairs while Nakamaru just stands and stares from Kame to Jin and back in disbelief.

“What the fuck, Taguchi?!” Ueda screams from below.

“I thought it was the burglar!” Taguchi’s voice replies. He sounds terrified.

“That was a lamp!” Ueda roars. “How many burglars do you know who have beige fringe?”

Nakamaru clears his throat. “Um, so. Are you going to be okay?” _With him_.

“Yeah,” Kame answers, nodding a little quicker than is really necessary. “We’ll be fine.”

“I should go downstairs,” Nakamaru goes on. “Tatsuya gets scary when he’s pissed.”

Kame laughs. “Yeah he does. See you in the morning.”

He steps back into his room and closes the door behind him. Jin’s still sleeping, which erases all possibilities of sobriety because Jin’s the lightest sleeper Kame knows. Somehow that’s more comforting; Jin has always been a sentimental drunk and his inebriation leading him _here_ – not just to Ueda’s cottage but also Kame’s _bed_ – has Kame’s heart swelling in ways he hasn’t felt in years.

“Hey,” Kame whispers, purposely flinging himself onto his bed, landing on his back across Jin. “Wake up, Jindilocks.”

Jin whines unconsciously, batting at Kame like a cat would bat at a disturbance.

Kame bounces harder. “Ji~n.”

“Fucking bastard, Pi, I’ll kill you,” Jin grumbles, his eyes slitting open and widening as they focus. “Am I dreaming?”

“Do you often see me in your dreams?” Kame asks, half teasing. Half serious.

Jin narrows his eyes. “What are you doing here?”

“I think that’s my line,” Kame says as he rolls off and lays on his stomach next to Jin. “Why are you in my bed, Jin?”

“Naka-whatever’s pillow sucked,” Jin mumbles. His voice is unusually deep and husky. “Ueda’s had some weird fairy dust that I’m allergic to. And the other door was locked.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question,” Kame tells him. “Why are you here in the first place?”

“Camping with Ryo and-” Jin answers, interrupting himself with an impressive yawn that shows his tonsils. “-Pi. Went for a walk. Ended up here.”

“You guys were camping nearby?” Kame tries to understand. “Did you know we were coming up here this weekend?”

“No,” Jin answers, and it’s laced with hurt. “No one invited me.”

Kame’s heart aches. “We thought you’d be busy preparing for your debut.”

“Excuses,” Jin spits darkly. “Don’t forget, I can tell when you’re lying.”

“Fine, we didn’t think you’d want to come,” Kame admits. “Our worlds, they’re different now. Aren’t they?”

“If you say so,” Jin huffs as he starts to sit up. “I’ll just head back-”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Kame says firmly, pinning him down with both hands. “It’s three o’clock in the morning, you’re probably still drunk, and you’re already here. Did Pi bring his phone with him? I’ll text him to tell him you’re with us.”

“Is it more fun without me?” Jin asks seriously, blinking up at Kame’s concerned eyes. “Do you like it better now that I’m not dragging you down?”

“Jin, what are you even talking about?” Kame replies. “KAT-TUN is different now. We have a whole new group dynamic without you. It’s not better or worse than before – just different.”

“I miss you,” Jin blurts out. “All of you, not just you. But you, too. Not as teammates or supporters or even complete strangers working towards a common goal – god knows I could never work with you again – but just… having you around. All of you.”

Kame laughs. “You are so drunk. Let’s argue in the morning, okay? I have to get up early to drive back to Tokyo.”

“I don’t want to argue with you anymore,” Jin mumbles, his eyes slipping shut again. “I just want to exist with you.”

“Scoot over, then,” Kame replies, ignoring the fluttering in his chest. Jin’s drunk, he won’t remember any of this after he sleeps it off.

He tells himself that’s the only reason he lets Jin burrow into his chest as they sleep, the broken glass downstairs completely forgotten.

~

“Kazu~” Koki sings through the door. “It’s not like you to oversleep-”

He cuts off mid-note as the door swings open and he sees Kame peacefully entwined with their former sixth member in his bed.

“What is it?” Taguchi asks from down the hall. “Did something happen to Kame?”

Koki blinks rapidly, like the scene will change if he goes fast enough. “I think I just opened the door to the past.”

Taguchi skids to a stop next to him. “Whoa.”

“You two act like you’ve never seen them like this before,” Ueda grumbles, leaning in the doorway of his and Nakamaru’s room like it was the only thing holding him up. “Must you gawk like perverts?”

Nakamaru’s hopping into his pants as he squeezes past Ueda. “Who’s making breakfast?”

“We don’t have time for breakfast,” Ueda tells him. “We have a five-hour drive and an appointment at noon.”

“Ah, we don’t have an appointment if nobody shows up, do we?” Nakamaru asks with a sleepy wink. “Besides, Kame’s the one who takes five hours to get back. He drives like my grandmother.”

“I can make it back in two-point-five,” Koki offers. “Just distract Kame so he doesn’t notice.”

Ueda nods into Kame’s room. “Distraction secured.”

“It’s settled,” Nakamaru says with a decided clap. “Now who’s making breakfast?”

At the commotion in the hallway, Jin stirs. As he wakes up, he realizes that he’s in a bed, not a sleeping bag, and the voices he hears don’t belong to Ryo or Pi.

The small, thin body in his arms is also 100% Kamenashi.

He thinks about screaming, but his head is pounding too badly. And he’s incredibly comfortable, like he spent all night trying to find the perfect bed and _finally_ found one. Like fucking Goldilocks.

“Baby bear,” Jin says out loud, laughing at himself.

Kame punches him in the gut. While Jin winces, Kame rolls onto his back and stretches, his face contorted into an interesting expression when Jin pries open one eye.

“We didn’t have sex, did we?” he asks.

Kame laughs through his yawn. “No, we didn’t.” He cuts his eyes towards Jin, looking at him in that way that always made Jin feel like he was under interrogation. “I take it you don’t remember how you got here?”

“Goldilocks,” Jin answers immediately, like it’s a word association game. “We were camping, and drinking, and I saw you guys leaving and got kind of… nostalgic.”

Kame’s face softens. “You do remember. So it’s real?”

“Yeah,” Jin says, feeling his face flush. “How much did I tell you?”

“Everything,” Kame answers. “A whole big wad of insecurity.”

Jin cringes. “Sorry about that.”

“I’m only going to say this once,” Kame starts, leaning up on his elbows and staring Jin hard in the eyes. “We may not be in the same group anymore, but that only changes our friendship if you want it to. _You_ are the one who left, Jin. _You_ need to be the one to say it’s okay to stay like we were.”

“It’s okay,” Jin rushes to say. “I thought I would be fine as it was, but dammit, you get used to people after ten years. Even if all you did was argue.”

Kame smiles, lighting up his face and Jin’s. “We argued a lot, didn’t we?”

“I wonder what we’ll have to argue about now,” Jin wonders out loud.

“I’m sure we’ll find something,” Kame assures him. “It’s _us_.”

Jin flops back down in the most comfortable bed in the world and curses the early hour. “I have to get up now, don’t I?”

“I think Tatsuya would be okay with you staying,” Kame replies. “But that’s not really what you’re asking, is it?”

Jin rests his head on the pillow and looks up at Kame through his messy bangs. “Can I ride back with you guys?”

“What about Ryo and Pi?” Kame asks.

“They know their way back,” Jin tells him. “And they’ll bring my shit or I’ll tell my mom to stop feeding them.”

“It’s fine with me,” Kame says. “It’s my Jeep, although I caught wind of the others electing Koki to speed back. But if you ride with us, I’ll probably pretend not to notice.”

Jin frowns in confusion. “What do I have to do with Koki speeding?”

Then Kame’s in his arms again, holding onto him and infiltrating his senses just like when he woke up.

“You’re not the only one who missed this,” Kame mutters, and Jin squeezes him instinctively.

They sit in the backseat with Nakamaru, who falls asleep on Jin while Taguchi rides the emergency brake and seems to have no problem with Koki shifting between his legs. Jin really doesn’t want to know.

He catches Ueda’s eye in the side mirror and the older man smiles, asks him about his upcoming debut, and says those words Jin’s been longing to hear this whole time: “I’m proud of you.”

Right here, right now, with Nakamaru on one shoulder and Kame on the other, the latter clutching onto him like he’s something precious he’ll lose if he lets go, this is what feels just right.

~

The next year is a whirlwind of singles and promotions and concerts. Jin debuts in America and is naturally a hit, making Japanese history and stealing even _more_ hearts across the world. He only sees his former bandmates once, a surprise concert visit in Hawaii that leaves no one in the entire arena with a dry eye, and he thinks that there’s something to be said for that old phrase “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

It doesn’t always have to be about romantic love. Particularly when Jin can’t really tell the difference anymore.

All he knows is that after the sold-out stadiums, the VIP parties, even the groupie hos, the one thing he looks forward to is going back to Japan. It’s what he tells everyone in his interviews – he misses his friends and family in Japan for whom he’s working hard, to make them proud. He wants to go back to them as an international star.

That international star is in the center of the latest picture adorning one of the end tables in Ueda’s cottage, peacefully asleep while the five other stars with whom he used to shine do obscene things to his exhausted form. Nakamaru in particular appears to be taking great joy with the penis he’s turned Jin’s nose into, and Kame is fully concentrating on putting Jin’s hair in pigtails with frilly pink bows – little sister, his ass. In true maturity, Koki scrawled English curse words across Jin’s cheeks, Taguchi drew an arrow to Jin’s mouth and labeled it “a _hole_ new world,” and Ueda just leans back and looks smug because Jin was placed incriminatingly on his lap.

And up in Kame and Jin’s room, one of the beds is still unused.


End file.
